Is Most Personal Finance Advice Useless? Author Exposes Industry’s ‘Dark Side’

According to a new book digging into the curious history and modern-day big business of personal finance, much of the advice doled out by “experts” in books, on Oprah Winfrey‘s couch, and on their own TV shows is simplistic, misleading, contradictory, or otherwise useless. Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey, and Jim Cramer are among the boldface-name financial gurus who are skewered in Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, the new book by Helaine Olen, a New York City-based journalist and former personal finance columnist herself. The book was recently described by the New York Times as “a take-no-prisoners examination of the ways she says we have been scared, misled or bamboozled by those purporting to help us achieve financial security.” Below, Olen answers our queries about her new book, the state of financial literacy, and the wors...